RJ Curtis

After five-plus years at All Access, RJ Curtis decided to take the helm at Country Radio Broadcasters, another major stepping stone in his illustrious career. Here, Curtis offers his unique and insightful perspective on the health of Country radio, the music and radio industry environment, and the challenges he and the CRB face going forward.

Before we get into your new role, a quick flashback: Why did you leave radio programming in 2006 for the trades and then a label gig?

It was spurred primarily by Emmis flipping KZLA/Los Angeles out of Country in August of 2006. That really made it happen. I grew up loving radio and always will. I'd also worked continuously at a radio station for 30 years, starting when I was 17. Ironically, a year to 18 months ahead KZLA's flip, I was starting to think about what the next chapter could be ... stay in radio? Try something new? I had always put doing something new on the shelf, so even though I did have radio opportunities after KZLA, working for a legendary publication like R&R and writing about format trends sounded challenging and fun.

In 2009 it was déjà vu all over again when Billboard - then-owner of R&R - ceased publication. An opportunity at Arista Nashville to join its Promotion team immediately surfaced. It was a completely different gig than R&R, but one I understood quite well from my years in radio. I knew exactly what I was getting into, and knew I had to try the promo experience. I learned a lot during my 18 months with Arista, and feel I was even very good at my job - but I didn't love it. The label and its artists deserve someone who loves the job unconditionally. I'm glad I worked records; the experience taught me a great deal and gave me valuable perspective when I ultimately returned to the trade pub world, first with Country Aircheck in 2011, and, for the past five-and-a-half years here at All Access.

Was the transition from programming radio to reporting it difficult?

It was a total change of mindset. When I was an OM for radio stations, there were always a lot of people in the building, many of whom reported directly to me. Typical of a busy, active radio station, ours was a dynamic, active setting with a lot of creative staff members to manage and interact with all day. When I went to R&R, essentially I was responsible for one person - me. I was sort of a lone wolf, working in a small office, cranking out all the news in my format. That was a hard transition for me at first. I'm a people person; I like being around others, bouncing ideas off them. At R&R, my interaction with others was mostly in a virtual sense, through IMs, e-mail and phone calls. That took a minute or two to get used to.

Did your trades and label gigs change your perspective of Country radio?

It really did. When you're programming one radio station in a market, I don't want to say you have your head in the sand, but you're singularly focused on one product in one market. Sure, you're aware of what's happening in the marketplace and in the greater world, and you're paying attention to trends in your format, but in essence, you're really wearing blinders when overseeing a station. When I went to R&R, it was amazing ... now I was interacting with people all over the country, with stations in all different market sizes. That experience made me look around, pop my head up above the clouds, and take in the whole world out there. It's like a view of the entire industry from 20,000 feet, which was enlightening. Had I decided to go back into radio after that, I'd like to think my programming would bring a more informed and wider perspective, with a broader view of the big picture.

Which prompts the question: During that time, did you ever get the hunger to return to programming?

The answer is no, and it surprised me because I had been in radio for so long; I loved going to work in a station. I know this sounds a bit "rah-rah," but when I got out of the car to walk into the station each day, it was always exciting to be around the studios and radio personalities. I never lost that excitement while in radio, but when I went to work at R&R, I quickly grew to enjoy and appreciate the wider perspective I mentioned earlier. I remember being in Houston once, visiting friends. I went into KKBQ to visit my friend (and, CRB Board member) Johnny Chiang and his staff - and while I enjoyed being around the environment, I didn't miss working in it. There was no ache to get back into radio. Instead, I felt empowered and reassured that I had made the right decision to try something completely different.

You've been a part of Country Radio Broadcasters for many years. Now that you're Executive Director, are there things you want to do that you couldn't implement before?

It's hard to even grasp how many years. I've been a part of the CRB board for almost two decades, first joining in 1999. I signed onto the agenda committee in 1997, but I started going to CRS in 1985 and I first got involved in it the next year. I don't exactly remember how it happened, but I got talked into providing room counts during sessions. Shortly after joining the Board, I was invited to become a member of the executive committee. A couple of years after that, I became the secretary, an officer position. A year later, in 2004, I was recruited to be President, where I became much more involved in the organization and planning its future.

While I'm on the job now, the first CRS on my watch will be CRS 2020. For our upcoming event -- CRS 2019 -- I'm working alongside current Executive Director Bill Mayne, who is guiding me in the transition, teaching the nuts and bolts, and any issues I had not been aware of as a board member. Bill has led CRS at an extremely high level for 10 years, so his experience will be important for me to quickly absorb.

As for what lies ahead, this is a challenging time for the radio and the music industries. Our job at every CRS is to address the critical issues and challenges our attendees are facing in their respective businesses via our agenda. We have to find ways to help radio to maintain its relevance, and we have to continue making CRS an absolutely necessary event for labels, radio and all affiliated parts of the Country radio and music business. Historically, CRS has struck a very good balance between education and entertainment. Bill has said for years, and I totally agree: CRS is to the Country music industry what the Detroit Auto Show is to the car business. It happens early in the year when labels roll out their priorities for the year. We're going to do all we can to make the CRS an exciting, entertaining and educational event.

Looking beyond that, we have to recognize that there are a lot of important, incredible things happening at a dizzying rate in the digital space. We have to find a seat at the table for that sector at our event. Our board has realized that for several years now, and I'm proud that we already have board members who occupy high profile positions in that part of our business, with representation from Deb Herman at Shazam, Ryan Reddington with Amazon, and Brittany Shaffer from Spotify. They have been highly engaged already, and I feel we're well positioned to successfully merge more digital thinking into our world. That's important because CRS has been around for 49 years and it deserves a lot of credit for the incredible relationship that exists between Country radio and the labels -- industries that have very diverse business objectives. We've brought our two parties together to address our relationship in a candid, open and cooperative fashion. The conversation we're having now is how we can build a relationship with our digital partners too, where all stakeholders succeed, all boats rise, and the Country genre continues to thrive. As the digital world expands, consumption of all music genres continues to be bigger and better than ever. I personally don't believe one entity has to lose for the other to succeed. I also don't want anyone in radio worrying that CRS will drift from its core mission and our focus on terrestrial radio. That won't happen, but we have to be mindful that the world of music is changing and growing; as we've always done, CRS will try to be ahead of those changes.

How does the CRB cater to the different needs and interests of the large and small-market stations?

We've always had to look at the differences, and our agenda has always done an outstanding job of providing insight and education specific to all market sizes. There's still a lot of truth to the saying "Radio is radio, no matter what market size," yet there are so many stations on the small and medium-market level that have very few staff members in their buildings anymore. There's a growing number of syndicated shows covering both drive times, and evenings, too. And you can point to what the iHeart team does to address small-market station air talent needs.

In fact, as I alluded to earlier, CRS has done a very good job of addressing those issues for a long time because a majority of our attendees come from small-market stations. We're always mindful of that in our agenda process; we build our curriculum to address specific needs, which we've done successfully because a good number of those on the agenda committee come from small markets.

Nashville is becoming more cosmopolitan by the day, what with non-Country artists moving there, as well as a growing number of Country artists collaborating with those of other genres. In that light, should Country radio be more receptive to the music of those collaborations?

That's already happening, in terms of mingling musical styles and influences, just because it's a big wide world out there, and secondly, the growth of Country's share among 18-34s in the last seven years has helped widen the spectrum of music influences and styles for Country radio. That millennial group are music consumers who don't put music into individual silos. They combine all music genres into one big playlist they love. They can comfortably shift from one genre to another, which enables Country radio to go wider than ever. At the same time, this format still has massive appeal to its traditional, 25-54 core.

I recently read a Facebook thread where someone said Country has lost its identity and needs to find itself again, mainly because there's not a lot of traditional sounding music anymore. The traditional sound is still there -- Luke Combs, Midland, Cody Johnson and many other exciting, talented young artists are sparking a slight resurgence of it - but overall it's just another texture for Country radio. The reality is that Country music DOES have an identity -- as a musically wide format that welcomes diverse styles that attract listeners from 18-54 years of age in large, competitive shares. The younger segment of that constituency is a playlist generation I referenced earlier, and you're going to see more and more records like the Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line and the Maren Morris/Zedd next to what Sam Hunt brings to the table, and in that same mix you'll also hear something by Midland, Ashley McBryde, or Luke Combs. Our identity is catering to everybody -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing for the format.

So listeners punching out a station because they hear a style of Country that doesn't appeal to them isn't a concern anymore?

It's still challenging for programmers to seek a balance. Back in the day, they used to balance music that was all in the center lane, made up of mostly traditional Country music. Now the challenge is balancing everything that's coming at them, which is a harder problem. Not only is the music more diverse than ever before, but the sheer volume of singles landing on a PD's desk seems bigger every week. Country radio is brilliant at curating a relatively limited number of songs, and balancing them so there's no signs of fatigue, so that listeners are hearing their favorite songs whenever they give radio an occasion. And Country radio is still the vehicle that can provide critical mass at just the right time for the genuine hit songs to be elevated to a level where everybody recognizes them.

With that in mind, do you feel that Country radio programmers today are playing it safe with music ... and if so, they should take more chances?

In general, I think they're playing it very safe right now. As a lover of new music, and someone who has been in Nashville for 10 years now, I share all the labels' enthusiasm for their rosters, and their frustration when projects aren't given a shot. I think part of that bottleneck is each of the bigger radio companies having individual corporate music initiatives and partnerships, so there are fewer chances taken -- and, fewer slots available -- at the local station level. I hope this is cyclical; that there will be times when programmers get more daring, by highlighting the diversity and depth in the music. Currently, though, they seem to be tightening up. They probably have good reason for that, using research that I'm not privy to.

How involved is the CRB in commissioning and/or utilizing research?

One of our cornerstone events is a research project we commission for the CRS that's presented during the seminar. It's initially accessible to all attendees, then is presented to everyone else for free. Our research committee -- currently lead by Clay Hunnicutt, who just succeeded Joel Raab -- has always done an amazing job of recognizing trends and issues way ahead of the curve. We've been working with Larry Rosin and his team at Edison, to come up with very interesting programming studies that help us discover what's really going on. In the recent past, we've taken a look at morning radio; we took a deep dive into smart speakers last year. I'm not at liberty to discuss what topic we're working on for 2019, but I can assure you, it will be relevant, and the findings our attendees see will be actionable, so when people leave Nashville Saturday morning, February 16th, they'll know how to implement what they've learned starting Monday, February 18th.

Have the labels' growing interest in streaming impacted Country radio's relationship with the labels?

I believe we're in a transformational period on that. For the last three years, we've put amazing panels together on streaming and how those metrics can be applied at terrestrial radio, by MDs and PDs in selecting songs. We're also listening to how radio analyzes streaming numbers and digital data, to identify what songs will be high performing songs for their stations.

At this point, I'd say radio is still figuring out how to look at a staggering amount of streaming data to find out which numbers to use to project what works for them. I have no doubt they'll master this new dashboard. Label promo teams know that the critical mass I mentioned earlier is generated by radio's consensus on a single. While radio programmers and MDs are adjusting to new data for music decisions, it's got to be an exciting time to break into record promotion, too, especially for someone who is in tune with overall music consumption. Their jobs are now more complex than ever - just like everybody else in this business